August Wilson (1945 – 2005) was an award-winning American playwright whose work illuminated the joys and struggles of the African-American experience in the United States during the 20th century.

August Wilson’s Childhood

Wilson’s rise from humble beginnings to Broadway was unlikely. Born Frederick August Kittel on April 27, 1945, in the Hill District community of Pittsburgh, he was the son of Daisy Wilson, an African-American cleaning woman, and Frederick Kittel, a German immigrant and baker who was mostly absent from Wilson’s life. His mother raised Wilson and his siblings in a two-room, cold-water flat. Though bright and creative, he found student life difficult. Racially bullied at one school, bored at the next and accused of cheating at another, he secretly dropped out of high school in his early teens.

For the next several years, Wilson educated himself at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh during school hours, unbeknownst to his mother. He learned to love the blues, buying old 78 rpm records at a local thrift store. There he discovered the sound of Bessie Smith’s voice, which proved to be a revelation.

A voracious reader from a young age, Wilson began his artistic life as a poet. He also sought out the poetry in everyday life. He spent time in restaurants, barbershops and on the streets of “The Hill,” listening to the residents’ voices and stories. Wilson would later draw on these voices and histories to create unforgettable characters in his plays.

August Wilson’s Artistic Development

Wilson had begun writing plays — one a musical western — before relocating to Minneapolis. There he was given a fellowship to the Minnesota Playwrights Center, which led to his acceptance into the National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut.

During the conference — an intense collaboration of artists testing new works — Wilson would meet Lloyd Richards. Richards was an African-American director who served as the dean of the Yale University School of Drama and the artistic director of the Yale Repertory Theatre. He was a legend in dramatic circles, especially in black theater, and would become a father figure and mentor to Wilson. Together, the two men would make a bold new statement on the Broadway stage.

August Wilson’s Century Play Cycle

Wilson’s greatest contribution to American culture would be his defining 10-play cycle, one for each decade of the past century. All but one — Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom — set in the city of Pittsburgh:

Over the course of his life, Wilson would be honored with many awards, among them the Tony, two Pulitzers and seven New York Drama Critics Circle Awards. Even the Carnegie Library graced him with its only honorary degree.

August Wilson’s Legacy

In the late 90s, with a career spanning nearly two decades, Wilson married his third wife, costume designer Constanza Romero. The two had a daughter and moved to Seattle, WA, where Wilson continued to work on the last plays in the cycle. In June 2005, Wilson was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. He died Sunday, October 2, 2005, in a Seattle hospital. His funeral service was held in Pittsburgh and he is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, not far from his mother Daisy.

Wilson’s plays gave voice to both the mundane and extraordinary aspects of black life. Characters and dialogue could be weighed down with the bitterness of the streets or elevated with the mysticism of a ghostly ancestry. His work helped to propel and cement the careers of a legion of actors, directors and artisans. The characters and conflicts in Wilson’s plays reflect the external influences as well as his own history: the struggles of a biracial child who experienced racism and who grew up without a father, and the undying belief that nobility was not defined by skin color and circumstance. The result is an unprecedented collection of extraordinary dramas.

August Wilson Timeline

August Wilson's childhood home at 1727 Bedford Ave., Pittsburgh, PA. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. Photo: WQED Pittsburgh.

April 27, 1945 – Frederick August Kittel is born in Pittsburgh, PA, in the city neighborhood known as “The Hill.” The Hill is Pittsburgh’s Harlem, a hub of creativity and commerce, and in 1945, still racially mixed. His mother, Daisy Wilson, was African-American, while his father, a German immigrant named Frederick Kittel, was white. He is one of seven children that will eventually be born to the couple, though Frederick would be absent for most of his children’s lives.

1959 – A student at the predominantly white, private Central Catholic High School, young Frederick is the victim of constant race-based bullying and abuse. He leaves Central Catholic for Connelly Trade school, where he feels unchallenged. He later transfers to Gladstone High School in the neighborhood of Hazelwood.

1960 – Now a 10th grader, he is assigned an essay on a historical figure. After being accused of plagiarizing his paper on Napoleon Bonaparte, the 15-year-old drops out of Gladstone High. He becomes a voracious reader and educates himself by spending his days at the nearby Carnegie Library.

1962 – He enlists in the U.S. Army but leaves after a year.

1963-1964 – He works a variety of jobs and begins writing poetry, purchases his first typewriter and discovers Bessie Smith and the blues.

1965 – To honor his mother, Frederick August Kittel changes his name to August Wilson. His biological father dies.

1977 – He writes a western musical play, Black Bart and the Sacred Hills.

1978 – August leaves Pittsburgh for St. Paul, MN., with the help of his friend Claude Purdy. He is hired as a writer for the St. Paul Science Museum.

1980 – While in Minnesota, the respected Minneapolis Playwrights Center grants August a fellowship.

1981 – August marries Judy Oliver.

1982 – Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Repertory Theatre stages Jitney. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a play about the legendary blues singer, is accepted by the National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. August Wilson meets Lloyd Richards, an African-American director who serves as the dean of the Yale University School of Drama and the artistic director of the Yale Repertory Theatre. The two men forge a friendship that results in Lloyd directing August’s first six Broadway plays.

1987 – Fences opens on Broadway. August wins his second New York Drama Critics Circle Award and his first Pulitzer Prize. The play goes on to gross $11 million during its inaugural Broadway season. Watch a scene from Fences.

1988 – August Wilson adds a second production running on Broadway when Joe Turner’s Come and Gone opens. It wins the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. August returns to Pittsburgh to lecture at Carnegie Institute and appears on Bill Moyers’ World of Ideas.

1989 – Yale Rep premieres The Piano Lesson. He is named 1990 Pittsburgher of the Year by Pittsburgh Magazine in his former hometown.

1990 – The Piano Lesson opens on Broadway and wins August his fourth New York Drama Critics Circle Award and his second Pulitzer Prize. Two Trains Running premieres. His second marriage ends and August Wilson moves to Seattle, WA.

1992 – Two Trains Running opens on Broadway and wins New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play.

1995 – The Piano Lesson is broadcast on national television (CBS). Seven Guitars premieres.

1996 – Seven Guitars reaches Broadway and August is awarded his sixth New York Drama Critics Circle Award. He writes “The Ground on Which I Stand,” his controversial essay on the need for black cultural separatism.

1997 – Wilson participates in a contentious and widely publicized debate with theater critic Robert Brustein on the funding of black theater, color-blind casting and other topics. August and Constanza’s only daughter Azula Carmen Wilson is born.

1998 – August teaches playwriting at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

1999 – The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh awards August with its first ever high school diploma.

2000 – Jitney is produced in New York, Wilson’s first play to be staged in an Off-Broadway theater. He is awarded his seventh New York Drama Critics Circle Award.

2005 – Radio Golf, August’s last play in the Century Cycle, premieres at the Yale Repertory Theatre. In June, he is diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and dies Sunday, October 2, in a Seattle hospital. His funeral service is held at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Pittsburgh. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, not far from his mother Daisy.

###American Masters — August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand premieres Friday, February 20 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings) to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Wilson’s birth, the 10th anniversary of his death and Black History Month.

When did you experience the work of August Wilson? Were you surprised by any details in this biography? Share your comments and thoughts, below.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/august-wilson-the-ground-on-which-i-stand/biography-and-timeline/3683/feed/0Bing Crosby: Timeline: Bing Crosby’s Life and Careerhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/bing-crosby/timeline-bing-crosbys-life-and-career/3501/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/bing-crosby/timeline-bing-crosbys-life-and-career/3501/#commentsMon, 01 Dec 2014 21:52:04 +0000knightchttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/?p=3501Follow entertainer Bing Crosby’s remarkable life, from growing up in Spokane, Washington, to his death after a good game of golf at a course in Madrid, Spain. He had four sons with his first wife Dixie Lee, who died at the age of 40 of cancer, and two sons and a daughter with his second wife, Kathryn.

Nov. Bing starts work in his first film, King of Jazz, a musical revue starring Paul Whiteman. He is also arrested for drink driving and is later sentenced to 60 days in jail, but he is released under escort for filming. His sentence is eventually commuted to 40 days.

1930s

1930

Apr. The film King of Jazz is released.

July The Rhythm Boys first appear at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles; Bing is the standout favorite.

Sept. Bing and Dixie Lee marry.

1931

Jan. Bing records “I Surrender, Dear,” his first solo hit.

Feb. Bing plays himself in “Reaching for the Moon,” a film starring Douglas Fairbanks.

Mar. Bing signs a deal with director Mack Sennett to appear in a series of short comedic films, and signs his first solo contract, with Brunswick Records.

Apr. “Out of Nowhere” becomes Bings first solo Number 1 hit.

Spring/Early Summer – The Rhythm Boys disband.

June “Just One more Chance” reaches Number 1.

Aug. Bings signs a massive deal for weekly 15-minute segments on CBS radio

Sept. After two postponements, Bing makes his solo radio debut. Bing opens with “Just One More Chance” and the show becomes a massive hit. I Surrender, Dear, Bing’s first appearance in a Mack Sennett short film, is released.

Nov. “The Cremo Singer” radio show premieres on WABC (CBS affiliate). Bing
records “Where the Blue of the Night” for first time, which becomes his theme song. “One More Chance” (short film) is released.

Dec. New York’s Bank of the United States collapses. It was the largest single bank failure in the country’s history.

1932

Jan. “Dinah” with the Mills Brothers reaches Number 1.

Oct. Bing meets Bob Hope for the first time and gets his first starring role as a radio singer in the musical comedy “The Big Broadcast.” His song “Please” reaches #1.

Sept. The film Rhythm on the River is released. The eponymous song from the film is featured in American Masters – Bing Crosby Rediscovered.

Oct. The song “Only Forever” reaches Number 1 and remains for there 10 weeks.

Nov. Bing returns to Kraft Music Hall. The song “Trade Winds” reaches #1

Dec. Bing signs new contract with Paramount for nine films in three years for around $175,000 per film. He also signs a contract with Decca Records for five years at $60,000 per annum plus a percentage.

1941

Apr. The film Road to Zanzibar is released.

Dec. 7 The Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The U.S enters World War II the next day on December 8, 1941.

Dec. Bing sings “White Christmas” on the NBC program Kraft Music Hall, marking the first time the public has heard the soon-to-be Number 1 single of all time.

1942

May Bing records “White Christmas” and joins Hollywood Victory Caravan, a traveling show to raise money for war bonds.

June Submissions to the SEC indicate that Bing has the second highest income in the US behind MGM studio chief, Louis B. Mayer.

Oct.“White Christmas,” written by Irving Berlin, reaches Number 1 for the first time and stays for 11 weeks. It will become the best-selling single of all time.

Nov. The film Holiday Inn is released, featuring “White Christmas.” The song will win the Oscar for Best Song at the Academy Awards in 1943. The film Road to Morocco is also released.

MayGoing My Way is released, in which Bing takes on his most famous role as Father O’Malley. The film features the song “Swinging on a Star,” by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke, which reaches Number 1 and wins an Academy Award for Best Song.

June 6 D-Day: The Allies invade Normandy, France.

Aug. Bing entertains the American troops abroad.

Nov. “Don’t Fence Me In” w/ The Andrews Sisters reaches Number 1.

Dec. Film Exhibitors name Bing the top box office star of the year, the first of five consecutive years.

1945

Mar. Bing wins Best Actor for Going My Way at the Academy Awards.

Oct. “It’s Been a Long, Long Time” with Les Paul reaches Number 1.

Dec.Bells of St. Mary’s is released, a film in which Bing reprises his role as Father O’Malley alongside Ingrid Bergman and becomes top box office attraction for 1946.

1946

Feb. Bing and Bob Hope appear on the cover of Life Magazine.

Mar. Road to Utopia is released.

May Bing leaves Kraft Music Hall.

Aug. Signs contract with Philco Radio Corporation.

Oct. The film Blue Skies is released, in which Bing stars alongside Fred Astaire.

1947

Bing Crosby with first wife Dixie Lee and three of their four sons: Phillip, Dennis and Lindsay

Jan. Films Road to Rio, a film is financed by Crosby, Hope and Paramount.

Mar. Records only two records with Al Jolson, including “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”

Aug. A group of investors buys The Pittsburgh Pirates, Bing now has 25% of the syndicate.

The years 1946 to 1964 define the post-war baby boomer generation, when the United States saw a spike in its birth rate. The American economy flourished and supported larger families, advances in technology made it easier to share ideas and culture, and space exploration took off. But the boomers’ era was also marked by great unrest. Americans born during this period were shaped by a world ravaged by a World War that included unimaginable mass genocide and the atom bomb. The hypocrisy of American freedom and democracy was exposed by African-Americans who stood up against shameful racial injustice and inequality. And just as boomers were coming of age into adulthood, drafts for the Vietnam War began.

This timeline looks at events and people that made the news in each year of the boomer generation.

1946

President Truman proclaims end of World War II (combat ended in 1945 but the hostilities were considered over once war crime trials in 1946 ended)

Emperor Hirohito of Japan announces he is not a god

Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with approximately 20 employees

ENIAC (for “Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer”), the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania

AT&T announces their first car phones

Benjamin Spock’s influential The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care is published

1947

The V-2 rocket launched into space

Kenneth Arnold makes first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington; a downed extraterrestrial spacecraft is reportedly found near Roswell, New Mexico

The first practical electronic transistor is demonstrated

Edwin Land, founder of the Polaroid Corporation, makes first “instant camera”, the Polaroid Land Camera

1948

The first tape recorder is sold

Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools is unconstitutional

The U.S. State Department announces plans to place objects into Earth’s orbit

1950

President Truman orders development of the hydrogen bomb in response to detonation of Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb in 1949. He sends U.S. military advisors to Vietnam to aid French forces

The first TV remote control, Zenith Radio’s Lazy Bones, is marketed

The Mattachine Society, the first gay liberation organization, is founded in Los Angeles, California

1951

The Ninth Street Show, featuring notable Abstract Expressionist artists, marks debut of post-war New York City avant-garde, known as the New York School

Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the U.S.

First regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin operation

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage and sentenced to death

1952

The Lever House skyscraper opens in New York City, heralding a new age of commercial architecture

Newspapers report that a fleet of UFOs hovered over Washington, D.C. and were tracked on multiple radar. Fighter planes were scrambled and the Air Force holds a press conference

A mechanical heart is used for first time in a human patient

Christine Jorgensen, a transsexual woman in Denmark, becomes the recipient of the first successful sexual reassignment operation

1953

Georgia approves the first literature censorship board in the U.S.

68 percent of all television sets in the U.S. are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch the character Lucy (Lucille Ball) give birth

The CIA helps overthrow government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran; CIA Technical Services approves use of the synthetic drug LSD in a MKULTRA subproject (MKULTRA was a covert, illegal CIA human research program investigating mind control)

The first meeting of Narcotics Anonymous takes place in Southern California

1954

The U.S. Census indicates 239,000 farmers gave up farming

The first shopping mall opens in Southfield, Michigan

Ground breaking begins on Disneyland in Anaheim, California

President Eisenhower reports detonation of first H-bomb (done in 1952)

President Eisenhower warns against U.S. intervention in Vietnam

The first microbiology laboratory opens

The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1955

Racial segregation is forbidden on trains and buses in U.S. interstate commerce

Who and What Was Meaningful to You?

Do you remember these people and events or did your parents or grandparents talk about them? Share your take on Boomer generation timeline events in the comments section, below.

American Masters: The Boomer List premieres nationwide Tuesday, September 23, 9-10:30 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), telling the story of this influential generation through the lives of 19 iconic boomers—one born each year of the baby boom.

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/the-boomer-list/timeline-of-a-generation/3153/feed/0A Fierce Green Fire: Timeline of Environmental Movement and Historyhttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/a-fierce-green-fire/timeline-of-environmental-movement-and-history/2988/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/a-fierce-green-fire/timeline-of-environmental-movement-and-history/2988/#commentsTue, 15 Apr 2014 16:30:51 +0000knightchttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/?p=2988This timeline of key moments in environmental history and the environmental movement is adapted from Tom Turner’s chronology for American Earth, an anthology edited by Bill McKibben. The timeline includes important early writing, the first conservation groups, disasters, legislation, community and non-profit activism, and more.

Early Environmental Writing and Advocacy

Seminal works that serve as milestones in environmentalism come from writers and naturalists from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century.

1854 Henry David Thoreau’s Walden

1864 George Perkins Marsh’s Man and Nature

1872-1913 John Muir’s essays, articles and books about the Sierra Nevada

From the 1880s on, English romantics and reformers including John Ruskin, Octavia Hill and Edward Carpenter articulate ideas about saving nature and man from the Industrial Revolution. German foresters like Dietrich Brandis promulgate scientific conservation. Gifford Pinchot is the first head of the U.S. Forest Service (1899).

1949 Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac

The tile for the film “A Fierce Green Fire” comes from the pioneering ecologist’s essay, “Thinking Like a Mountain,” in which Leopold describes his experience as a young ranger shooting a wolf.

“We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then and have known ever since that there was something new to me in those eyes, something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.” — Aldo Leopold

The First National Parks

National parks are established first in the United States: Yellowstone (1872), Sequoia (1890) and Grand Canyon (1908).

The movement spreads to Australia and New Zealand (1879 and 1887), South Africa (Kruger National Park grows out of a game reserve established in 1898), India (Kaziranga grows out of a forest reserve from 1905) and Europe (Sweden establishes seven national parks in 1909.)

The First Conservation Groups

The first conservation groups are dedicated to saving wildlife and wild lands.

1886-1905 The National Audubon Society forms to save plume birds from ladies’ hatters

1887 The Boone & Crockett Club is set up to preserve “manly sport with rifles”

1892 The Sierra Club is established by John Muir and others to defend Yosemite National Park

1918 Save the Redwoods League begins buying the last old-growth redwood trees

1935 The Wilderness Society is started by Aldo Leopold and others to preserve wilderness; and the National Wildlife Federation brings together hunters and fishermen

1946 The Ecologists Union, later the Nature Conservancy, is started by scientists to acquire ecologically important reserves

1961 The World Wildlife Fund is founded by Sir Julian Huxley, Dutch and British royals

Key Dates in Environmental History

1962

The book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson warns of devastation that pesticides, particularly DDT, are wreaking on birds and other creatures. Carson is criticized by the chemical industry, but the book is a bestseller and has an immense impact worldwide.

1963

Congress passes the Clean Air Act (expanding it in 1970, 1977 and 1990), and ratifies the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, ending testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, underwater, and in space.

1964

The Wilderness Act passes, setting aside 9.1 million acres to be preserved in perpetuity, “where man is a visitor but does not remain.” Congress will add national forest, national park and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands to the system, which will grow to 100 million acres.

1965

Scenic Hudson Preservation Conference—an alliance of local residents and national environmental groups—challenges a hydroelectric plant at Storm King Mountain in New York. The U.S. Court of Appeals rules that “aesthetic, conservational, or recreational” interests can establish standing to sue, a precedent that leads to growth of environmental litigation.

1966

The Sierra Club publishes ads opposing U.S. Bureau of Reclamation plans to build two dams inside the Grand Canyon. The IRS retaliates by suspending the tax deductibility of contributions to the club. Public opinion rallies strongly to saving the Grand Canyon. Stewart Udall, Secretary of the Interior and conservationist, has a change of heart. Congress first postpones the dams, then prohibits dams in the Grand Canyon and expands the national park. It is a turning point, the biggest victory yet for conservation.

1967

The Environmental Defense Fund is founded by scientists who begin litigation to ban the pesticide DDT. Concurrently, Yale Law grads seeking to set up “a law firm for the environment” combine with attorneys fighting Storm King hydroelectric plant, and the Natural Resources Defense Council takes shape. The Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund (later Earthjustice) is the third major group using lawsuits — from Storm King to Mineral King — to be formed during this time.

1968

The flowering of the conservation movement climaxes with the creation of North Cascades National Park, Redwood National Park, the Wild and Scenic Rivers System and the National Trails Bill — all signed into law on the same day. The Population Bomb becomes a bestseller, predicting famine in the wake of global overpopulation. The Whole Earth Catalog provides new tools, technology and thought to those looking for alternatives. Its guiding spirit is Buckminster Fuller, who becomes famous for a geodesic dome at Montreal Expo in 1967. He speaks of Spaceship Earth and the need to guide it, to find ways of doing “more with less.”

1969

An oil rig in the Santa Barbara Channel blows out, creating a slick of 800 square miles and killing 10,000 birds. Pollution leads to massive fish kills on Lake Erie. Then the Cuyahoga River catches on fire. Pollution enters the national consciousness just as man landing on the Moon makes clear how small and precious is Earth. David Brower is forced to resign as leader of the Sierra Club, and re-emerges as Friends of the Earth.

1970

A big year begins with NEPA, the National Environmental Policy Act, which mandates environmental impact reviews and becomes a powerful tool. The first test is the Alaska Pipeline; Brower and his allies nearly stop it. A major extension of the Clean Air Act establishes national air quality standards and regulates auto emissions. President Nixon forms the Environmental Protection Agency. He is reacting to a huge surge in public concern about environmental issues. Earth Day, conceived as a teach-in on a few campuses, draws 20 million, not just students but housewives and boy scouts. It’s a pivotal event, turning from the old conservation to a new environmental movement.

1971

Congress votes down the supersonic transport after environmentalists and fiscal hawks raise a ruckus. The Cross-Florida Canal is stopped using NEPA. Oregon enacts the first bottle bill to encourage recycling and stop litter. Greenpeace begins with pacifists and hippies sailing to the Aleutian Islands to prevent a nuclear bomb test. They are intercepted and forced to turn back, but cause quite a stir and end future tests.

1972

The Clean Water Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Ocean Dumping Act all become law. Nixon vetoes the Clean Water Act, but Congress overrides his veto. EPA bans DDT. The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment brings together a hundred countries. The U.S. proposes a moratorium on whaling. Indira Gandhi talks back to the West about population control. Activists protest against use of the toxic defoliant Agent Orange. Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess proposes “deep ecology.” The Limits to Growth, a computer model of future environmental trends, is published. The “standard run” leads to overshoot and collapse. But it’s about alternatives; and it proves both controversial and influential.

1973

The Endangered Species Act passes Congress almost unanimously. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as CITES, is finalized. The Izaak Walton League sues the U.S. Forest Service to halt clear-cutting. Their victory begins a turning away from “get-out-the-cut” first policies.

The environmental honeymoon comes to an end with the Arab oil boycott. It causes an energy crisis that leads to fuel standards, speed limits, exploration of alternative and renewable energy sources, and more. Construction begins on the last nuclear power plant, Watts Bar in Tennessee, to come on line. And in California, organic farmers form into a group and set the first standards for organic agriculture.

1974

President Ford signs the Safe Drinking Water Act. Sherry Rowland and Mario Molina first describe the way refrigerants (CFCs or chlorofluorocarbons) break up ozone. Chipko, or the tree hugger movement, in India begins when women in the village of Reni surround trees to prevent contractors from cutting them to make cricket bats.

1975

The Eastern Wilderness Act is signed into law after a campaign lasting several years. It protects 207,000 acres, recovering forests acquired by the federal government after extensive logging. In Wyhl, West Germany, protestors occupy the site of a proposed nuclear power plant until it is canceled — the first victory for an anti-nuclear movement building in Europe.

Greenpeace sets off to hunt the whalers. After two months at sea, off the coast of California, they come upon the Russian whaling fleet. They launch their Zodiacs, get between the whalers and the whales, and film harpoons shooting over their heads. The story explodes and launches Greenpeace on the wildest ride of any group.

1976

The National Forest Management Act gives the public new tools to protect national forests from rampant logging. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act guides BLM land use, establishing wilderness areas, and ending land claims under the 1862 Homestead Act. Foreign Affairs publishes an essay by Amory Lovins entitled Energy Strategy, The Road Not Taken? It describes a “hard path” relying on fossil fuels and nuclear fission, and a “soft path” that depends on conservation and renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.

Greenpeace launches a campaign to save baby harp seals. It’s Paul Watson’s idea. They get out on the ice off Newfoundland and block the sealers’ ship, Arctic Endeavor. However, after meeting fierce resistance, Greenpeace leader Bob Hunter agrees not to spray dye on the pelts to render them worthless. Paul Watson is angry. Still, the baby harp seal campaign is a great success and brings Greenpeace many adherents in Europe.

1977

Over 2,000 Clamshell Alliance protestors occupy the construction site of a nuclear reactor at Seabrook, New Hampshire; 1,414 are arrested and detained. Only one of two reactors planned ultimately comes on line; and the owner is bankrupted by the project. The Abalone Alliance also begins protests against Diablo Canyon in California. The Green Belt Movement is founded by Wangari Maathai in Kenya. Facing forest loss, soil erosion and desertification, she organizes women to plant seedlings and pays them to make sure they grow into trees — over 50 million so far.

Greenpeace returns to the harp seal rookeries. Paul Watson throws a sealer’s club in the water, then chains himself to a pile of pelts. He’s slammed against the ship, then dunked. Mounties demand he be brought on board the sealers’ ship. The crew tries to asphyxiate him with seal blubber, then kick and spit as he’s dragged across the deck. After the second seal campaign, Paul Watson is voted out of Greenpeace. At issue is breaking the ban on violence. But behind it is a power struggle. Within months Paul forms Sea Shepherd Society.

1978

The Smithsonian Institution lists close to 10 percent of 22,000 plant species native to the continental U.S. as threatened or endangered, largely because of habitat loss. In June the Supreme Court upholds the Endangered Species Act in a case involving the snail darter, a tiny fish threatened by the Tellico Dam on the Little Tennessee River. Trying to overturn the ruling, Congress creates a “God Squad” to judge what species are worth saving. However it votes in favor of the snail darter. Congress then exempts the project and the dam is built. But the Endangered Species Act withstands its first test. Sherry Rowland lobbies against CFC’s and the EPA bans their use as propellants in aerosol cans. Amoco Cadiz wrecks off the coast of France, spilling oil over 110 miles of coastline.

After a wet spring Love Canal begins bubbling up. Articles by Michael Brown expose 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals buried in an old canal by Hooker Chemical Company (they sold it to Niagara Falls, N.Y. school district for $1; now the 99th St. Elementary School is built atop it.) Lois Gibbs, whose son, Michael, is starting kindergarten and coming home sick, leads a neighborhood protest. They go to Albany to see the governor and get diverted into a press conference where the NY State Health Commissioner declares an emergency evacuation of the nearest houses. But the neighbors around them get nothing. They organize into the Love Canal Homeowners Association.

Paul Watson gets a ship with funding from Cleveland Amory of the Fund for Animals. Sea Shepherd goes after pirate whalers in the Atlantic, starting with the notorious Sierra. On July 16 Paul catches and rams it twice. As the Sierra limps back into port, Watson surrenders to the Portuguese Navy. The port captain rules there will be no charges. In November, Watson returns to discover the Sierra being repaired, his Sea Shepherd confiscated and about to be handed over to the owners of the Sierra. So on New Year’s Eve, he scuttles his own ship. Then they sink the Sierra once and for all.

Greenpeace begins its next big campaign, against ocean dumping. They discover the GEM dumping radioactive waste and run their Zodiacs under the barrels until one is smashed. Confrontations over dumping at sea go on for years. In 1983, the London Dumping Convention finally calls for a moratorium on dumping waste.

1979

In March Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, suffers a partial meltdown. The accident is a major setback that brings a de facto end to building new nuclear power plants in the U.S. EPA bans production of polychlorinated biphenyls, a toxic class of persistent organic pollutants. Facing a spike in oil prices precipitated by the Iranian Revolution and a broader “crisis of confidence,” President Carter addresses the nation in July, urging conservation. He lowers federal thermostats, and installs solar panels on the White House roof (President Reagan has the panels removed). Inspired by Edward Abbey’s novel The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975), Earth First! is founded by four staffers from national environmental organizations who have grown disillusioned. Its motto: “No Compromise in Defense of Mother Earth.” In the Amazon, Tom Lovejoy initiates the Minimum Critical Size of Ecosystems project, the first large-scale experiment in habitat fragmentation; it confirms biodiversity decline and loss.

Love Canal protests enter a second year focused on health studies. The residents conduct their own study and find that 56 percent of their children “were born with birth defects: three ears, double rows of teeth, extra fingers or toes, or mentally retarded…Of 22 pregnancies only 4 normal babies were born.” NY State Health officials reject their study and do their own. In August, they announce their findings at Love Canal. They got the same results, but ascribe them to “a random clustering of genetically defective people.”

1980

In June, the Supreme Court rules that a genetically modified organism may be patented, in a case involving a bacterium to help clean up oil spills. After a campaign led by the Sierra Club, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act passes, protecting over 100 million acres — “the last chance to get it right the first time.”

Love Canal comes to a climax when the EPA is called in and they find genetic damage. The White House overrules a recommendation to relocate the residents. On May 16, Lois Gibbs and her neighbors take EPA officials hostage and give President Carter an ultimatum. Two days later he agrees to relocation. Congress passes Superfund in the wake of Love Canal; it identifies hazardous waste sites across the country, determines parties responsible for cleanup, and provides funds for federal remediation where the original polluters are bankrupt or unidentifiable. It is underfunded most of its life.

Sea Shepherd clears the Atlantic Ocean of pirate whalers in one year. Ibsa1 & Ibsa2 are sunk in Vigo, Spain. Posters offering a $25,000 reward for sinking the Astrid appear in Las Palmas, Canary Islands; unable to trust their own crew, owners retire the vessel. In September, the South African navy sinks the Susan and the Theresa after seizing them from the owners of the Sierra. All illegal whaling in the Atlantic ceases.

1981

James Watt becomes Secretary of the Interior after leading the Mountain States Legal Foundation, which represents miners, ranchers, timber and other extractive industries. A petition calling for his ouster is signed by more than a million people. He resigns in 1983. Ann Gorsuch is appointed to head EPA. But after 22 months of downsizing and refusing to enforce regulations, she too is forced out. Her deputy Rita Lavelle is hauled up on Capitol Hill, lies about spying and is convicted of contempt of Congress. A wind boom begins in California. 17,000 turbines are built, thanks to federal and state credits. But then bad policy kills the U.S. wind power industry, which is overtaken by the Danes.

Lois Gibbs takes her Love Canal relocation money and moves to Washington, D.C., to form an organization “to help all the other Loises.” Called CCHW and then CHEJ (Center for Health, Environment and Justice), Lois becomes the nexus of grassroots groups fighting pollution and poisons. Her motto is, “Plug up all the toilets.” They stop all new toxic waste dumps, then turn to front-of-the-pipe and health issues.

1982

The International Whaling Commission approves a moratorium on commercial whaling to take effect in 1985, thanks to a 10-year campaign carried out by activists throughout the world. Japan and Norway defy the ban and continue whaling. Solar One, built in the Mojave Desert, demonstrates the feasibility of solar thermal energy. In Warren County, North Carolina, the term “environmental racism” is first used during a battle over a toxic waste dump forced on a poor, black community. For six weeks local citizens and their supporters march and are arrested, igniting environmental justice as a movement.

1983

After a year of harassing James Watt and pulling up survey stakes, Earth First! engages in confrontation for the first time in the Kalmiopsis wilderness of Southern Oregon. They are called in by an anonymous forest service employee to protest plans to log a stand of old-growth trees. Earth First! activists block bulldozers on Bald Mountain long enough to get a court order stopping the plan. Later the U.S. Forest Service cancels the timber sale, and the area is incorporated into the South Kalmiopsis Wilderness. Paul Watson returns to campaigning for baby harp seals; the Sea Shepherd escorts three sealing ships out of the Gulf of St. Lawrence rookery. Canadian Coast Guard assault and board the ship. Paul is arrested, tried and sentenced to 21 months in prison. Nine days into serving time, however, an appeals court reverses his conviction. But he doesn’t get his ship back until 1985. The German Green Party wins 27 seats in the Bundestag, a first.

1984

An accident at a Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, releases MIC, methyl isocyanate, killing an estimated 7,000 people within a few days and ultimately causing 15,000 more deaths. Union Carbide denies responsibility; its CEO, later arrested on manslaughter charges, leaves India on bail and is not extradited.

1985

Joe Farman of the British Antarctic Survey reports in the May issue of Nature that a hole in the ozone layer has opened over Antarctica. (They missed it the year before because their readings were dismissed as errors.) Depletion of the ozone layer is occurring more rapidly than expected. As the IWC whaling moratorium takes effect Paul Watson sinks half of Iceland’s whaling fleet. In Auckland, New Zealand, Greenpeace’s ship Rainbow Warrior is blown up on its way to protest against French nuclear bomb tests. It turns out that French intelligence agents did it. Support for Greenpeace soars. The Rainforest Action Network begins by boycotting Burger King until it stops importing beef from the Amazon. In Institute, West Virginia, a plume of MIC gas escapes from Union Carbide’s factory — a twin to Bhopal — and sickens the town.

1986

On April 26, Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine explodes, releasing a radioactive cloud over northern Europe — the worst nuclear disaster ever. Next a fire at Sandoz’s chemical factory in Switzerland spews a poisonous pulse down the Rhine. EPA, FDA and USDA establish the Coordinated Framework for Regulation of Biotechnology to regulate newly developed transgenic organisms.

1987

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is adopted by more than 100 countries. It calls for a reduction in the emission of ozone-depleting chemicals by 2000, but is amended in 1990 and 1992 to call for a complete phase-out of the use of chlorofluorocarbons, halons, and carbon tetrachloride by 2000. Timber harvesting in U.S. national forests peaks at 12.7 billion board feet — only 5 percent of native unlogged forests remain in the lower 48 states.

1988

During a heat wave in what turns out to be the hottest year on record in the continental U.S., NASA climatologist Dr. James Hansen testifies that, “The greenhouse effect has been detected and it is changing our climate now.” The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is established to investigate whether carbon dioxide and other gases are causing a warming of the global atmosphere and whether human activity is a major contributor.

Chico Mendes, union organizer and leader of the rubber tappers in the western Amazon state of Acre, is assassinated a few days before Christmas. Chico has just established the first rubber tapper reserve — and his death proves to be a turning point in saving the Amazon. 58 million acres are set aside in extractive reserves and 40 percent of the Brazilian Amazon is formally protected.

1989

Exxon Valdez runs aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, spilling 11 million gallons of oil over 6,000 square miles and killing hundreds of thousands of marine animals. Alar, an agricultural chemical used on apples, is withdrawn following a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council. In October, international trade in elephant ivory is banned. The Center for Biological Diversity is founded by former Earth Firsters, one of the new grassroots biodiversity protection groups that use litigation to compel implementation of environmental laws to protect wildlife and wild places.

1990

The northern spotted owl is listed as a threatened subspecies under the Endangered Species Act, following litigation brought by environmental groups. Sulfur dioxide emissions from U.S. coal plants reach 28 million tons, double pre-WWII levels. The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 strengthen rules to reduce “acid rain” — and introduce trade-able pollution permits for sulfur dioxide emissions. The first cap-and-trade scheme heralds the third wave of environmentalism, based on compromise and cooperation with business. Earth First! activist Judi Bari is bombed — the bomb is planted under her car seat — while recruiting for Redwood Summer. In a Gallup poll, 70 percent of Americans call themselves “environmentalists.”

1991

Judge Dwyer issues an injunction against new logging of northern spotted owl habitat in national forests in the Pacific Northwest. It is the pivotal moment in a decades-long fight to turn the U.S. Forest Service from “getting out the cut” to environmental values. The first National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit is held in Washington, D.C., attracting more than a thousand participants. The war in Kuwait is an environmental disaster, with big oil spills and fires. An Antarctica treaty takes force. Japan vows to end driftnet fishing.

1992

The U.N. sponsors an Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro that brings all the world leaders together for a moment of promise. Two major treaties are negotiated: the Convention on Biological Diversity, which the U.S. refuses to sign; and the Framework Convention on Climate Change, which the U.S. threatens not to sign unless reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases are purely voluntary. President Bush declares, “The American way of life is not up for negotiation,” but signs the UNFCCC. It becomes the basis for all future negotiations on climate change. At the end of 1992, Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. sign the North America Free Trade Agreement, easing trade restrictions among the three countries. The proposed treaty causes a rift within the environmental movement, with some groups supportive and others claiming it will undermine environmental laws. A driftnet fishing ban takes effect, as do rules on farmworker exposure to pesticides.

1993

On January 4, 300,000 Ogoni people protest the destruction of their Niger River delta homeland by Shell Oil, which leaks more than an Exxon Valdez every year. Thousands are killed and journalist/environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa is arrested. In April, President Clinton hosts a “Forest Summit” to try to solve the timber conflict. His team comes up with a compromise called Option 9. The Clinton administration uses strong-arm tactics to get environmentalists not only to accept it, but to release millions of board feet of timber sales as a good-faith gesture. By 1994, the Northwest Forest Plan leads to an end to the moratorium on logging in northern spotted owl habitat. Simultaneously, the Center for Biological Diversity files suit to protect the Mexican spotted owl, which results in an injunction on logging in national forests across the Southwest.

1994

The FDA allows the sale of the rot-resistant Flavr SavrTM tomato, the first genetically modified whole food intended for public consumption; after a variety of production problems, it is withdrawn from the market within a few years. Genetically modified canola, corn, and soybeans are subsequently approved by the FDA and begin to be widely adopted by U.S. farmers. In June, Exxon Mobil is ordered to pay $5 billion in damages in the wake of the Exxon Valdez disaster; the company immediately appeals.

1995

The National Park Service begins a controversial plan to reintroduce the gray wolf into Yellowstone National Park. Fourteen wolves from Canada are released. Ken Saro-Wiwa is wrongfully executed by Nigerian authorities with the complicity and support of Shell Oil. Next, Greenpeace activists occupy a Shell Oil drilling platform called the Brent Spar in the North Sea; it was to be scuttled but is brought ashore after a consumer boycott gives Shell Oil a second black eye in one year. EPA identifies 126 types of ecosystems that are threatened or critically endangered.

1996

Like Teddy Roosevelt used the Antiquities Act to save the Grand Canyon in 1908, President Clinton uses the same law to create Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, an area north of the Grand Canyon threatened with mining. In California, the Headwaters Forest fight — pitting grassroots activists against corporate raiders liquidating the last old-growth redwoods in private hands — culminates in acquisition of the largest old-growth grove. Before the deal is sealed, Judi Bari dies of cancer; Julia Butterfly Hill tree-sits for two years; and David “Gypsy” Chain is killed by a tree felled on him by loggers from Pacific Lumber.

1997

The Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases is agreed to in December and signed by the U.S., although President Clinton declines to submit it to the Senate in the wake of the Byrd-Hagel resolution, passed by a vote of 95–0, which opposes key provisions of the agreement. Concerned over environmental justice, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeks “further study” before licensing a uranium-enrichment facility at Homer, Louisiana, blocking the facility. The National Cancer Institute reports on radiation exposures from Cold War atmospheric nuclear testing in Nevada; an estimated 120,000 excess thyroid cancers and 6,000 deaths may have been caused by these tests.

1998

It is the hottest year on record — again (to be superseded in 2005 and 2010).

1999

In November, tens of thousands of loosely affiliated anti-globalization protestors—including a variety of environmental, labor, religious, student and anarchist groups—stage demonstrations in Seattle and disrupt the third ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization. 1999 is the pivotal year for Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Movement) trying to halt a dam in India, marked by protests and satyagraha led by Medha Patkar as lands behind the dam are submerged.

2000

The population of the U.S. exceeds 281 million. Seventy-five percent of Americans live in and around cities, up from 20 percent at the time of the Civil War. Toyota introduces a hybrid gasoline-electric auto, the Prius, which becomes a bestseller. In Kentucky, a Massey Energy dam collapses and 300 million gallons of coal slurry explode out of a mountainside. Clinton’s last act as president is declaring 58 million acres of national forests off limits to logging. The “roadless rule” survives several court challenges. Rainforest logging is banned in New Zealand after a 30-year campaign.

2001

President Bush rejects the Kyoto Protocol as “fatally flawed in fundamental ways.” After secret meetings with industry leaders, Vice President Cheney announces a National Energy Policy emphasizing oil exploration and new coal and nuclear power plants. Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera, who fight to save tropical rainforests in the Sierra Madre of Mexico, are convicted of arms and drug smuggling despite evidence of torture. President Fox frees them after their attorney is murdered. Satellite photos reveal that a third of Guerrero’s forests are gone and Mexico is losing three million acres per year. University of California ecologist Ignacio Chapela presents evidence that genetically modified corn has contaminated wild varieties in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. A NASA survey of 2,000 glaciers finds that most are shrinking. In China, relocation of one million people to make way for the Three Gorges Dam leads to protest and police violence.

2002

The USDA creates the National Organic Program, regulating organic food production. The German government announces plans for a massive increase in wind generation capacity over the next 25 years. The U.S. wind energy industry wins passage of an extended production tax credit for electricity generated by wind power. A jury in Anniston, Alabama, rules that Monsanto polluted the town with tons of toxic PCB.

2003

The Bush administration wins a court victory on mountaintop removal mining that allows “spoils” to be dumped into streams. Next Bush proposes “Clear Skies” legislation to weaken targets for pollutants from power plants. Senator Inhofe passes an amendment rolling back New Source Review. However 12 eastern states win a court injunction blocking Bush from weakening clean air laws. Europe is hit by the hottest summer in 500 years; the death toll is 70,000. The GloFish®, a genetically modified zebra fish, is the first transgenic organism sold as a pet.

2004

Russia ratifies the Kyoto Protocol, putting it into effect without U.S. approval. Wangari Maathai wins the Nobel Prize. The National Wetlands Inventory reports that, since 1998, the U.S. has seen a small net gain in wetlands acreage: restoration programs and land set-asides have balanced ongoing losses from development.

2005

Hurricane Katrina devastates New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in August, heightening anxieties about global warming, a possible intensifier of the region’s weather patterns. The governors of seven northeastern states agree to a cap-and-trade program to limit carbon dioxide emissions, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempts fracking (hydraulic fracturing) from EPA regulation — infamous as the “Halliburton loophole.” By 2010 anti-fracking movements arise, aimed at saving the Delaware River basin; and Gasland by Josh Fox premieres at Sundance.

2006

The documentary film An Inconvenient Truth, featuring Al Gore giving a Powerpoint on the dangers of global warming, plays a transformative role in bringing back the issue of climate change. The state of California passes the Global Warming Solutions Act, mandating a reduction in greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the year 2020. Scientists discover losses among commercial honey-bee colonies; named “Colony Collapse Disorder,” the phenomenon becomes a subject of ongoing concern. President Bush establishes the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, an ocean reserve of 140,000 square miles. The Great Bear Forest is established on the coast of British Columbia: 5 million acres saved from logging. Greenland glaciers are melting twice as fast as estimated.

2007

After years of recovery, the bald eagle is removed from the list of threatened species. Melting across the Arctic takes off at a gallop; in September, satellite imagery reveals that the Northwest Passage is free of ice and fully navigable. In Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, the Supreme Court rules that the 1990 Clean Air Act gives EPA regulatory authority over automobile greenhouse gas emissions, an authority EPA avoided claiming. Bill McKibben and six students from Middlebury College form Step It Up and organize 2,000 rallies across the country. In 2008, they become 350.org.

Also launching in 2007 is Avaaz, an online activist network that grows to 20 million members in 194 countries. The first new nuclear power plants in 30 years are proposed in Texas, but their owner abandons the permit process in 2011. China overtakes the U.S. as the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases — though Americans are responsible for over six times as much greenhouse gas per capita.

2008

The polar bear is listed as a threatened species. The Center for Biological Diversity pioneers use of the Endangered Species Act to address global warming. It has a 90 percent success rate, has protected 335 species and 43 million acres of critical habitat, proving, “You don’t have to be moderate to be effective.” Scandal rocks the U.S. DOI’s Minerals and Management Service: gifts, sex and drugs in exchange for oil leases. Marina Silva, rubber tapper and now Brazil’s environment minister, resigns to protest failure to protect the Amazon rainforest. She will run for president in 2010 and poll 20 percent of the vote. GCCA, the Global Call for Climate Action, is formed by 270 NGOs; their first campaign is Tck, Tck, Tck, aimed at a climate deal in Copenhagen. In Antarctica, the Wilkins Ice Shelf collapses. Cyclone Nargis kills at least 138,000 in Burma. Another coal disaster ends the year: one billion gallons of coal fly ash sludge spill out of a TVA dam.

2009

In President Obama’s first year, auto mileage standards are raised 10 mpg to 35.5 mpg; EPA rules six greenhouse gases are a danger to the public and should be regulated; and the largest wilderness bill in 15 years sets aside 2 million acres. The G-8 industrial nations agree to cut greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050, a prelude to COP15. But in Copenhagen, climate negotiations collapse. The U.S. offers to cut emissions less than expected and China seizes on the resulting gridlock as an opportunity to walk out. President Obama tries to save the day with an “accord.” But it is a pledge exercise, not a binding treaty — and it becomes meaningless when climate legislation dies in the U.S. Congress.

2010

On March 31, President Obama proposes an Offshore Drilling Plan which will open vast expanses along the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and north coast of Alaska. Less than three weeks later, disaster strikes: BP’s Macondo oil well, being drilled by the Deepwater Horizon, explodes. Over 200 million gallons of crude oil leak out in the next five months, devastating coastlines from Louisiana to Florida. Moscow, surrounded by 800 wildfires, uses them as an excuse to cut down the Khimki Forest, which Yevgenia Chirikova and Ecodefense have been fighting to save from a highway. At Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine, a methane explosion kills 29 miners. The Cape Wind project is approved. Proposition 23, aimed at halting California’s climate legislation, is defeated. Australia sues Japan over whaling in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary.

2011

In Japan, following an earthquake and tsunami, the Fukushima nuclear power complex suffers reactor meltdown, explosions and fires ignited by fuel rods. Germany decides to phase out nuclear power. Nations and states set renewable energy goals: 30 percent by 2020 for California; 20 percent by 2020 in Europe. Tar Sands Action — joined by NRDC, Sierra Club, 350.org, National Wildlife Federation, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Rainforest Action Network — begin protesting against the Keystone XL pipeline. In August, old lions like James Hansen and Gus Speth get arrested outside the White House. In November, protestors surround the White House. Obama rejects Keystone’s application in January. Arctic sea ice reaches a historic low and Hurricane Irene drenches the U.S. east coast.

2012

EPA issues the first limits on greenhouse gas emissions from newly built power plants. NASA reports that the Greenland Ice Sheet melt is the most rapid since observations began 30 years ago. 2012 is the warmest year on record, by far, in the U.S. Hurricane Sandy hits New York with a 40-foot surge and becomes the second-most destructive hurricane in history.

2013

350.org and the Sierra Club launch the year with the biggest climate action rally yet. Carbon trading begins in California. Nuclear power plants begin to close around the U.S.: Crystal River in Florida, declared “inoperable”; San Onofre, due to “expensive repair bills”; Kewaunee in Wisconsin; and Zion near Chicago. Electric utilities using coal go bankrupt, undercut by fracked natural gas. EPA finally moves to issue regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants. Beijing struggles through months of toxic smog in the winter of 2012-2013. Tornadoes in the U.S. set a new record: 811. No hurricanes hit the U.S., but the Philippines are devastated by Typhoon Haiyan. Meanwhile, North Carolina outlaws sea level rise. An oil train explosion wipes out Lac Mégantic, Quebec. Two more derailments occur in early 2014. Northwestern opposition to coal trains stops three planned terminals, with three more to go. Last we heard, the Enbridge pipeline to carry tar sands oil west through Canada was stalled…and the Keystone XL battle goes on.

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Did you learn anything that surprised you? Let us know in the comments, below. Learn more when American Masters: A Fierce Green Fire premieres on PBS on Earth Day, April 22, 2014 at 9 pm. (Check local listings).

]]>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/a-fierce-green-fire/timeline-of-environmental-movement-and-history/2988/feed/0JD Salinger: Timeline of Major Eventshttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/jd-salinger/timeline-of-major-events/2838/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/jd-salinger/timeline-of-major-events/2838/#commentsThu, 16 Jan 2014 03:00:50 +0000knightchttp://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/?p=2838Timeline of major events in the life of writer J.D. Salinger (Jan 1, 1919 – Jan 27, 2010), including his education, relationships and literary achievements.

Jan 1, 1919
Jerome David Salinger is born in New York City
Jerome David Salinger is the second and last child of a Scotch-Irish mother named Miriam Jillich Salinger and a Jewish father named Sol Salinger. He has one sibling, a sister named Doris.

1930
Salinger the actor
Salinger attends an affluent summer camp, Camp Wigwam, in Harrison, Maine. Salinger performs in at least four plays and is voted the most popular actor by counselors and fellow campers.

1932
Salinger attends McBurney School
While living at 1133 Park Avenue, Salinger’s parents enroll him in Manhattan’s exclusive McBurney School for ninth and tenth grades.

1934
Salinger fails out of McBurney and is sent off to Valley Forge Military Academy
After failing out of McBurney, Salinger’s parents send him to Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania. He later uses the school as something of a model for Pencey Prep, Holden Caulfield’s alma mater in The Catcher in the Rye.

1935
Salinger announces intention to be a writer
Salinger’s senior year at Valley Forge begins. He serves as the literary editor of the Class of ‘36’s yearbook, Crossed Sabres, and announces his intention to write for the prestigious New Yorker magazine.

1936
Salinger’s freshman Year at NYU
Salinger enters New York University as a freshman.

1937
Salinger Drops Out of NYU
Salinger drops out of NYU in the spring of his freshman year. In the fall he reluctantly moves to Vienna, Austria, to study the meatpacking business on the advice of his father Sol.

1939
Whit Burnett and Columbia University
Salinger enrolls in a writing course at Columbia University that is taught by Whit Burnett, the editor of Story magazine. Burnett encourages the young writer’s career, and becomes a friend and mentor.

March 1940
“The Young Folks”
Salinger publishes his piece of fiction, “The Young Folks,” in Story magazine. Salinger’s writing continues to be championed by Burnett who will publish other early Salinger pieces in Story.

December 1941
“Slight Rebellion Off Madison”
After several rejections, The New Yorker finally accepts one of Salinger’s stories. “Slight Rebellion Off Madison,” the first Salinger story to feature Holden Caulfield. The story is not published because of Pearl Harbor. It sits on the shelf to be published five years later.

1942
Salinger off to War
After initially being rejected, Salinger is drafted into the U.S. Army, where he has a distinguished military career as a Counter-Intelligence Agent assigned to the 4th Division. Among other accomplishments, he takes part in the Battle of the Bulge and, later, enters Kaufering, a sub-camp of Dachau. He also forges a strong friendship with war correspondent Ernest Hemingway. Salinger continues his writing career during the war, carting his typewriter around in his Jeep. His experiences in the war leave a deep impression on him and prove to be the transformative trauma of his life and career. His writing is changed forever. After the war, Salinger checks himself into a mental hospital and is treated for “combat fatigue” which was post-traumatic stress syndrome.

June 6, 1944
Salinger’s first day of combat is D-Day
On D-Day, Salinger lands on Utah Beach and participates in the invasion of Normandy, France as a member of the Fourth Division.

1945
Salinger Marries Sylvia Welter
Salinger marries a German woman named Sylvia Welter. They live together only eight months, and the marriage officially ends when Salinger files for an annulment.

1948
“A Perfect Day for Bananafish”
After rejecting Salinger many times, The New Yorker publishes his short story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” the first to feature a character from the fictional Glass family. The story causes a sensation. Salinger signs a contract with the magazine, promising to let them have first opportunity at publishing any of his future stories.

1949
Samuel Goldwyn purchases the rights to “Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut” My Foolish Heart, a film adaptation of Salinger’s story “Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut,” premieres. The movie is ripped apart by critics. Salinger finds the experience so miserable that he never formally authorizes another film version of his work.

July 16, 1951
The Catcher in the Rye is published The Catcher in the Rye is published by Little, Brown and Company. The novel’s success offers Salinger instant fame, which Salinger quickly realizes he doesn’t want. He begins the process of retreating from public life.

1952
Salinger turns to religion to heal his post-traumatic stress syndrome
After practicing Buddhism for several years, Salinger becomes deeply interested in the texts of Advaita Vedanta Hinduism. His interest in religion spans his adult life, and he also dabbles in Christian Science and Dianetics, the precursor to Scientology.

1953
Salinger’s short story collection Nine Stories is publishedNine Stories, a book of short stories about the Glass family, is published. In the same year, Salinger moves from New York City to Cornish, New Hampshire, the small town where he lives until his death in 2010.

February 17, 1955
Salinger Marries Claire Douglas
Salinger marries Claire Douglas, a student at Radcliffe College (which was the sister school of all-male Harvard). As a wedding present, he presents her with a copy of a story about the character Franny Glass, who is partially inspired by his new wife.

December 10, 1955
Margaret Salinger is born
The couple’s daughter Margaret is born. Family and friends call her Peggy.

February 13, 1960
Matt Salinger is born
Matthew Salinger is born. In the years ahead, he will enjoy a lifelong friendship with his father and fiercely protect his privacy.

September 1961Franny and ZooeyFranny and Zooey is published and immediately becomes a #1 New York Times bestseller. The book consists of two long stories, one about Franny Glass (based on Salinger’s wife, Claire) and the other about her brother Zooey.

1963
Salinger publishes his last book
Salinger publishes a book of two novellas entitled Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. It is the last book he publishes. It was the #3 bestselling book of 1963 in the United States.

June 19, 1965
Salinger publishes his last story “Hapworth 16, 1924″
Salinger’s short story “Hapworth 16, 1924″ appears in The New Yorker. The story remains his last published work, though numerous witnesses report him writing every day and filing his work away to be published posthumously.

October 3, 1967
Divorce:
Salinger and Claire Douglas divorce after 12 years of marriage, finalizing a long separation.

1972
Short relationship with 18-year old Yale student Joyce Maynard
Salinger reads an essay in The New York Times Magazine by a Yale University freshman named Joyce Maynard. He is taken with her photo and begins a correspondence with her which leads to her dropping out of Yale and briefly living with Salinger in New Hampshire. At the time of their relationship, Maynard is 18 years old and Salinger is 53.

November, 1974
The world’s most famous recluse calls The New York Times
J.D. Salinger calls Lacey Fosburgh at The New York Times to protest the unauthorized publication of a collection of his early stories. During the call Salinger admits that he is writing every day but only for himself. He says there is a “marvelous peace” in not publishing. A story about Salinger breaking his silence is published on the front page of The New York Times the next day.

1979
A fan visit with Salinger
Michael Clarkson, a passionate fan of Salinger’s, visits the author without invitation in New Hampshire. Clarkson publishes an article about the visit and quotes Salinger as saying “I’ve made my stand clear. I’m a private person. Why can’t my life be my own?”

1980
A journalist lands an interview with Salinger
Betty Eppes publishes an article about her visit with Salinger. Salinger is quoted as saying, “There’s no more to Holden Caulfield. Read the book again, it’s all there. Holden Caulfield is only a frozen moment in time.”

1980
John Lennon murdered
John Lennon is murdered by assassin Mark David Chapman in New York City. After killing Lennon, Chapman sits down and starts to read The Catcher in the Rye. Chapman is the first of several of assassins who cite The Catcher in the Rye as inspiration for shootings and murders of public figures including President Ronald Reagan and actress Rebecca Schaeffer.

1982
Salinger out on the town
Salinger, now 63-years-old, travels to Jacksonville, Florida, to visit his new girlfriend, the 37-year old actress Elaine Joyce, who is performing at a local dinner theater.

1986
Salinger blocks a biography
After learning that critic Ian Hamilton is preparing to write a biography about him using his letters as a central element of the book, Salinger sues Hamilton to block the book’s publication. The biography, In Search of J.D. Salinger, is heavily rewritten and eventually published in 1988.

1992
A fire at Salinger’s house
Various newspapers report a fire has consumed half of Salinger’s house in Cornish, New Hampshire. The emergency call was made by Salinger’s third wife Colleen O’Neill, who is 40 years his junior.

1998
Joyce Maynard sells out Salinger
Joyce Maynard auctions off the letters Salinger wrote to her during their brief relationship. In the same year, she publishes her memoir At Home in the World, which contains detailed and intimate descriptions of her relationship with Salinger. In a final heated meeting while Maynard’s book was being written Salinger told her, “You have spent your life writing meaningless garbage and now you mean to exploit me.”

1999
News that Salinger’s secret safe is filled with work
In March of 1999, Jerry Burt of Plainfield, New Hampshire, a former neighbor who was friendly with Salinger, told the Associated Press that Salinger told him “he was keeping a stack of manuscripts in a safe.”

2000
Margaret Salinger writes a memoir
Salinger’s daughter Margaret (Peggy) publishes a memoir of growing up with the writer. The book, Dream Catcher, is extremely critical of Salinger, who cut off contact with his daughter when he learned she was writing a tell-all. After its publication, Salinger’s son Matt refutes his sister’s account of their childhood.

2000
Margaret Salinger is eyewitness to Salinger’s special filing system
On September 13, 2000, Margaret Salinger told NPR’s Diane Rehm, “I do know he’s been working all these years because, probably the second time I’d ever been allowed in his study, he very proudly showed me a set of files, where a red dot meant this is ready to go upon my death, a green dot meant this needs editing, but it’s okay. It just needs some editing.”

June 2009
Salinger stops an unauthorized sequel to The Catcher in the Rye
Salinger sues to block the publication of 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, an unauthorized sequel to The Catcher in the Rye. The book is written by an author reportedly named John David California, who was apparently less familiar with Salinger’s litigious nature than with the book.

January 27, 2010Death of J.D. Salinger

At the age of 91, J.D. Salinger passes away in New Hampshire. The world mourns the loss of one of its most talented, and reclusive, voices. The Salinger family released a final statement from Salinger that read: I am in this world but not of it. This was the explicit fulfillment of central idea of the fourth and final stage of his Vedantic beliefs: renunciation of the world.

2013
Forty years of writing in secret will see publication
In 2013, new light is shed on Salinger’s life and work. Shane Salerno and David Shields published a biography of the famed writer entitled Salinger which became a New York Times bestseller. One of its many revelations is that there are at least five unpublished works by Salinger that are scheduled to be released sometime between 2015 and 2020. Salerno also created a film documentary on Salinger, which debuted around the same time as his book with Shields. It was theatrically released by The Weinstein Company and subsequently appeared as the 200th episode of the Academy- and Emmy-winning PBS series American Masters on January 21, 2014.

1950s

1950-to-1954 – Worked as a writer for Sid’s Your Show of Shows. 1952 – Mel writes “Of Fathers and Sons” sketch for hopeful Broadway revue Curtain Going Up. Eventually ends up airing on New Faces of 1952. 1954-to-1957 – Works as a writer for Imogene Coca’s revue and also Caesar’s Hour. 1957 – Writes Shinbone Alley with Joe Darion.

1960s

1960 – Mel arrives in Los Angeles and begins scriptwriting duties on The Ladies’ Man starring Jerry Lewis 1960 – Brooks and Carl Reiner begin performing 2000 Year Old Man on the Steve Allen Show. 1961 – 2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks sells over a million albums. 1962 – Writes All American. Despite receiving two Tony Award Nominations, the script and production were chaotic and the show had a poor Broadway run. At the same time Mel began working on a novel entitled Springtime for Hitler. 1962 – Records series of commercials for Ballantine Beer with Dick Cavett as the “2,500 Year Old Man.” 1963 – Conceives idea and narrates short film The Critic. Wins Academy Award for Animated Short Film. 1963 – Mel writes 30 min TV Comedy entitled “Inside Danny Baker” directed by Arthur Hiller. 1965 – Creates Get Smart with Buck Henry. Brooks uninvolved with production after pilot but series ran until 1970 and won seven Emmy Awards, including outstanding comedy series in 1968 and 1969. 1967 – Wins first Emmy for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Variety for a Sid Caesar special. 1968 – Brooks writes and directs The Producers. Wins the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

1970s

1970 – Brooks writes and directs Twelve Chairs based on Russian novel by Ilf and Petrov. 1972 – Brooks is hired by Warner Bros. along with Richard Pryor, Andrew Bergman, Norman Steinberg and Al Uger as a script doctor for unproduced western comedy calle Tex-X. Eventually hired as director for what would become… 1974 – Blazing Saddles released. Earns $119.5 million worldwide, despite modest budget of $2.6 million. Nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Madeline Kahn), Best Film Editing and Best Original Song. Wins WGA Award for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen. 1974 – Directs Young Frankenstein, co-written with Gene Wilder. Earns $86 million worldwide. Receives two Academy Awards nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound. 1975 – Brooks creates When Things Were Rotten. A Robin Hood parody TV series that lasts only 13 episodes. 1976 – Silent Movie released. Directed by Brooks, co-written by Brooks and Ron Clark. Earns $36 million at the box office. 1977 – High Anxiety released. Directed by Brooks, co-written by Brooks, Clark, Rudy De Luca and Barry Levinson. First movie produced by Brooks himself. Earns $31 million at the box office.

1980s

1980 – Brooks produces Fatso written and directed by wife Anne Bancroft. First picture produced by Brooksfilms. 1980 – Brooks produces The Elephant Man and hires David Lynch to direct. 1981 – Brooks writes, produces, directs and stars in History of the World Part I. Earns $31 million at the box office. 1982 – Brooks produces My Favorite Year and hires Richard Benjamin to direct. 1982 – Brooks produces Frances.
1983 – Brooks stars alongside Anne Bancroft in To Be or Not to Be directed by Alan Johnson. Earns only $13 million at box office. “To Be Or Not To Be” (The Hitler Rap) from the film’s soundtrack was performed by Brooks and peaked at #12 on the UK Singles Chart in Feb ’84 and #3 on the Australian Singles Chart1986– Brooks produces The Fly. Hires David Cronenberg to direct. 1987 – Brooks writes and directs Spaceballs. 1989 – Brooks creates The Nutt House TV series with co-executive producer Alan Spencer. Series features Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman and is originally broadcast on NBC. Eleven episodes were recorded but the network aired only six before cancelling the show.

1990s

1991 – Brooks writes and directs Life Stinks. Only film that Brooks directed that is neither a parody or satire on a particular work or genre. Also the last time Brooks played the leading role. 1993 – Brooks writes and directs Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Gene Siskel put the film in his “Worst of 1993” list and said Brooks had “clearly lost his way” in comedy. 1995 – Brooks writes and directs Dracula: Dead and Loving It. 1997-to-1999 – Wins three consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as Uncle Phil in Mad About You. 1999 – Awarded Grammy for Best Spoken Comedy Album with Carl Reiner for The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000.

2000s –

2001 – Adapts The Producers into a Broadway Musical. Show breaks all records by taking home twelve Tony Awards. Three went to Mel personally for Best Musical, Best Original Musical Score and Best Book of a Musical. 2005 – Brooks adapts The Producers musical to big-screen adding cast members Will Ferrell and Uma Thurman. 2007 – Brooks adapts Young Frankenstein into a broadway musical. After test runs in Seattle, it opens on Broadway on Nov. 8 to mixed reviews. Closes in Jan. 2009 after 484 performances. 2007 – Brooks creates Spaceballs: The Animated Series. The show runs for only 15 episodes and ends in 2009.2009 – Brooks is one of five recipients of the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors presented by President Barack Obama.2013 – The American Film Institute presents Brooks with the AFI Life Achievement Award.

The life and times of Sister Rosetta Tharpe

1915 – Rosie Etta Atkins is born in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, on March 20, to Katie Harper Atkins and Willis Atkins.

1921 – A 6-year-old Rosabell Atkins makes her debut solo appearance at Fortieth Street Church of God in Christ in Chicago.

1920s-30s – Rosabell and her mother, Katie Bell, evangelize for the Church of God in Christ. Katie Bell preaches and her daughter plays guitar and sings. They appear at the Maxwell Street market in Chicago as well as at churches, tabernacles, and revivals throughout the South.

1936-37 – Rosetta Tharpe and her husband are a popular act in southern Florida, especially at Miami Temple COGIC, where radio earns her local celebrity.

1938 – “Sister Rosetta Tharpe” joins the cast of the fall 1938 Cotton Club Revue, which headlines Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers dancers. She is an instant hit. Rosetta poses for photographer James J. Kriegsmann. The images of a smiling Pentecostal musician playing her guitar set the tone for future images, which almost always feature Rosetta with her instrument. Mills Music publishes Eighteen Original Negro Spirituals, a collection of songs and arrangements attributed to Rosetta Tharpe. The collection includes “This Train,” “My Lord and I,” “That’s All,” and “I Look Down the Road and I Wonder,” all songs she will subsequently record for Decca Records and perform regularly throughout her career. Rosetta records her first Decca sides, including “Rock Me,” a version of Thomas A. ’Dorsey’s “Hide Me in Thy Bosom.” Rosetta plays notable NYC concerts. In addition to John Hammond’s From Spirituals to Swing at Carnegie Hall, she plays the Paramount with Count Basie, and appears at Harlem’s Apollo Theater. The Apollo gig is a first for a gospel soloist.

1941 – Rosetta signs a contract to sing with the Lucky Millinder Orchestra, a popular swing band. They travel widely, and she scores hits with songs like “The Lonesome Road” and the distinctly secular “(I Want a) Tall Skinny Papa.” She and Katie Bell Nubin befriend Dizzy Gillespie when the jazz trumpeter briefly works for Millinder’s band.

1942 – During the war years, Rosetta records V-disks for U.S. troops and appears on Jubilee, a variety show targeting African American servicemen and women.

1943 – Rosetta breaks with Lucky Millinder and sets out on a solo career. That same year, she divorces Thomas Tharpe and marries Foch P. Allen.

1944 – Rosetta begins a productive recording relationship with Sammy Price, leader of Decca’s house band. They release “Strange Things Happening Every Day,” which climbs to number two on the “race” chart. The song has a second life in the 1950s, when Memphis deejay Dewey Phillips promotes it.

1946 – Rosetta appears at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Ole Opry, with the Fairfield Four. In the spring, she attends a Harlem concert where she hears a young gospel singer from Newark, Marie Knight. Rosetta subsequently convinces Marie to join her act. The pairing will prove a boon to Rosetta’s career.

1947 – Rosetta obtains a divorce from Foch Allen after testifying against him in a Nevada court.

1948 – “Up Above My Head,” a duet with the Sam Price Trio, reaches number six on the “race” chart. “Beams of Heaven” is popular among gospel fans. Rosetta purchases a house in Barton Heights, a middle-class neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia. Mahalia Jackson releases her monumental hit “Move On Up a Little Higher,” a song that catapults her to national stardom.

1949 – Decca Records has Rosetta record a “copycat” version of Jackson’s hit song. Rosetta forms the Rosettes, a back-up group of five singers from Richmond. Together they record a hit version of “White Christmas,” which reaches number six on the new “R&B Hit Singles” chart. They tour nationally with arranger-pianist James Roots, Jr., traveling to gigs on Rosetta’s own tour bus.

1950 – On January 1, Rosetta appears with the Rosettes on the Perry Como Supper Club show. It is her first national TV appearance.

1951 – Marie Knight and Rosetta Tharpe go their separate ways professionally, although Marie appears as a bridesmaid at Rosetta’s third wedding, to Russell Morrison. Staged at Griffith Stadium in Washington, DC, as a joint wedding-concert, the event attracts upwards of 20,000 paying fans, who cheer as bride plays electric guitar from center field.

1952 – Rosetta records a duet in Nashville with white country music star Red Foley. “Have a Little Talk with Jesus” fades into obscurity, but the collaboration is historic.

1954 – Encouraged by Decca producers, Rosetta reaches out to a burgeoning R&B audience with standard secular fare. The new songs alienate her gospel fans and never capture a share of the new “youth” market. Rosetta meets her half-brothers and -sisters from her late father, Willis Atkins. She befriends the extended Atkins clan of Camden, Arkansas.

1955 – Rosetta and Marie, reunited, play several New York jazz clubs, where they are warmly received by jazz critics. Rosetta turns forty. Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old black boy from Chicago, is murdered by white men while visiting relatives in Mississippi. His mother, Mamie Till, a member of Rosetta’s old Chicago COGIC congregation, displays his brutalized body at an open-casket funeral to thousands of anguished and angry mourners. Elvis Presley, a white teenager from Mississippi, raised on gospel music, releases “That’s All Right.”

1956 – Rosetta records her last songs for Decca, including “I’ve Done Wrong,” a light, lively jubilee song, accompanied by Richmond’s Harmonizing Four quartet. At Sun Studio in Memphis, the “Million Dollar Quartet” of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis run through several gospel songs. They warm up with material popularized by Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

1957 – After defaulting on the mortgage, Rosetta loses her Richmond home. Later that year, she and her husband-manager Russell travel to England, taking advantage of interest in U.S. musicians fueled by the British blues revival. During a concert tour sponsored by the Chris Barber Band, Rosetta is given celebrity treatment and hailed as a proto-rock and roller by delighted fans and critics.

1958-60 – European tours. Rosetta is greeted warmly in Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, and Scandinavia, where she tours with the Diz Disley band, featuring the young English drummer Ginger Baker, who would later be part of the British Invasion band Cream.

1960-1962 – Rosetta and Russell purchase a house in Philadelphia in 1960. She records two albums for Verve, Sister on Tour and The Gospel Truth. Katie Bell Nubin does her first and only LP, Soul, Soul Searching, with backup provided by a band led by Dizzy Gillespie.

1964 – British tour with the American Folk, Blues, and Gospel Caravan organized by U.S. promoter George Wein. The lineup includes Muddy Waters, Chess pianist Otis Spann, and the duo Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Blues and Gospel Train, a specially produced show based on the caravan, appears on British TV. That same year, Rosetta appears at the Newport Jazz Festival, on a program that reunites her with Count Basie.

1967 – Katie Bell Nubin and her daughter appear at the Newport Folk Festival, where Rosetta takes the stage in mink. That same year, she tours extensively abroad: in France, Germany, Scandinavia, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Great Britain.

1968 – Katie Bell Nubin dies in Philadelphia. Rosetta releases two notable LPs on the Savoy label, Precious Memories and Singing in My Soul. The former earns Rosetta her only Grammy nomination, for Best Soul Gospel Performance.

1970 – Rosetta falls ill, probably with a stroke, in Switzerland, during a date with the American Folk, Blues and Gospel Festival, and has to leave the tour to return to Philadelphia.

1971 – Rosetta undergoes amputation of a leg due to complications from diabetes. Later in the year she performs at Gates of Prayer Church in New York, along with prominent congregant Marie Knight. They rock the little church with “Didn’t It Rain” and “Precious Memories.”

1972 – Rosetta appears with fellow gospel great Marion Williams at the landmark Soul at the Center festival at New York’s Lincoln Center.

1973 – Rosetta suffers a stroke and dies at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, on October 9. She had been scheduled to record a new album with Savoy. At her funeral, at Bright Hope Baptist Church, Marion Williams sings “Precious Lord” and Marie Knight sings “Peace in the Valley.” Rosetta is laid to rest in Philadelphia, in an unmarked grave.

1998 – As part of its Black Heritage series, the U.S. Postal Service issues gospel singers stamps featuring images of Roberta Martin, Mahalia Jackson, Clara Ward, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

2001 – “Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poutin” [Amélie] released. The film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, features a brief videoclip of Rosetta Tharpe playing on “TV Gospel Time” from the 1960s.

2007 – Gayle Wald publishes Shout, Sister, Shout: The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe. It is the first full-length work about Rosetta Tharpe, based on interviews as well as archival documents.

2008 – After a campaign led by Bob Merz, a Philadelphia fan, the Governor of Pennsylvania declares January 11 Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day. That evening, a benefit concert is held at Philadelphia’s Keswick Theater to support the purchase of a marker for Rosetta’s gravesite. The concert features the Dixie Hummingbirds, Odetta, Marie Knight, Willa Ward, the Johnny Thompson Singers, and the Huff Singers. The governor’s declaration is read from the stage.

2009 – A grave marker, with text provided by Rosetta’s old Baltimore friend Roxie Moore, is installed at Rosetta’s gravesite at Northwood Cemetery. In addition to funds from the benefit concert, private donations and money from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation supported its purchase.

2011 – A historical marker is installed in front of Rosetta house on Master Street in Philadelphia. A celebration accompanies its unveiling.